I've just read through the shield section. It took me an hour but was well worth it. To be honest, a lot I could have deduced or has already been discussed in the forums or in Malstroms own articles. What does help is that he puts it all in a new context - to be honest, he could easily turn these articles in a case-study and publish it as full-fledged scientific articles.

I do want to hightlight this point:

"It should be noted that some of the biggest gamers on the Wii are PC gaming fans. Why? Because they know there is a difference between PCs and consoles. They, like the old school gaming fans, hate the idea of consoles being PC-like. How often do you hear a PC gamer say that FPS with a dual stick is a joke or the absurdity to pay for online connection when one gets it free on the PC?

No, the ones who are completely lost are the console gamers who see no difference between console gaming and PC gaming. When gaming goes a different path than the PC, they call it ‘backwards’ but most notably they call it non-gaming. When a console goes a different path than PC, they call it a non-console. So it follows with Nintendo doing online different than the PC model, they will soon be calling it non-online."

This is exactly how I felt. I was a PC gamer all the way from 2001 to 2006/7 (Snes/N64 prior to this). I considered all consoles including the GC to be a non-substitude for my PC, untill the wii came.

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This has me in stitches though:

Iwata:
Summing up my feelings, I would say that in all honesty I did not expect to see the hopes that I had for Wii in the beginning so fully realized in the finished product. While developing Wii, I felt that if the ideas I had could be made reality, then this could really change the relationship between people and games. I felt that this would add a new dimension to families' everyday experience of using the internet and playing games. I thought it might change people's lifestyles, as families gather around the TV to enjoy a new type of entertainment. Now I can hardly wait to see how people respond to the console. I don't mean whether they like it or not; I mean it in the sense of wondering what uses people are going to find for Wii. I think we've really come up with something pretty special.

Tamaki:
Can I just add something?

Iwata:
Be my guest! (laughs)

Tamaki:
I want to see families fighting over the Channels!

All:
(laughter)

Malstrom:
(laughs)

Sony and Microsoft:
(doesn't laugh)

On the news sectio there is a description of Malstrom's 5 favourite games.
I think it is funny try to guess what they are.

1) A 3DO game that is the ultimate progression of one of the first video games ever made, alone, made it worth plunking $699 for the system.

2) A PC game so epic, it was divided into two parts, and was the pinnacle of a series grander (and a hell more innovative) than Final Fantasy. The ultimate sand-box game.

3) An 8-bit game where you win by mind controlling your enemies and using their bodies to destroy other enemies.

4) A buggy strategy game, with tactics, that stretched in different worlds.

5) RTS where I literally, on the spot in battle, could program light planes to perform multiple hit-and-runs, on their own, while if they were hit once they would automatically return to base, repair themselves, and return to their harassment. Imagine the opponent suddenly getting 'attack warnings' from 24 spots on the map at once, and they keep changing. The psychological hell caused players to quit on the spot!
--------------------------

1) One of the only worthy games on 3DO was Star Control 2. It could be that one.
2) Easy. Ultima VII.
3) Paradroid. Easy to guess very orignal game.
4) I'm not strong on strategy games. Could be maybe Homeworld.
5) Uh read above. I have no idea.

Someone else want to try ?

Last gen consoles sold more than 150 million, including all of the three, PS2, Xbox1, GameCube, and counting these users I oversimplified, including with hardcore gamers, also "traditional" gamers, not hardcore, but liking old school games and controls.  And obviously, as happened with the last gen, the vast majority of these, let's call them so, "not new" gamers will buy a console of this generation much later, when price are more affordable.

Obviously there is a part of these old style gamers that preferred Nintendo last gen too, and it's very likely that they'll do the same for Wii. There is also a part of the old gamers that was really waiting for something new and different, so they'll choose Wii too. But even so, an estimate of 100 million old style gamers on consoles is not outlandish, trying to calculate their number only by GTA SA sales isn't accurate, not everybody likes GTA games, and PS2 alone, even not countin XB1 and GC too, has a games library so wide to address a lot of very different users and tastes, while it's been clear almost since the beginning that Wii is appealing a lot of users that wouldn'have bought a console before, and it's building part of its success on them. conquering completely new users means that the market is expanding, not that old users are disappearing.

However,  while we can decree Wii's success even right now, to say something less vague about PS3 and XBox360 we'll have to wait for both them to have lower prices, and, regarding only PS3, a wider games library, regarding only XB360, greater reliability. Only then they'll have the necessary bases to be able to significantly increase their sales, so we'll be able to accurately judge their success seing if this will happen or not.

^ My answer was about "hardlycore gamers".
Your estimation is wrong because you can not know how many potential customers (new or old ) are really interested to the new Wii values proposition.
The bulk of PS2 customers are what I call "non conscius gamers", people that doesn't know much about VG ( not like us that attend VG forum).
This people tend to own only one console per generation unlike us.
Wii is indirectly competiting with the other 2 console ( and other entertainment industry ).

^^

As I wrote, I can't be sure yet, but I agree, feeling the same, with those that say that hardcore and "traditional" PC gamers could be very attracted by Wii, thanks also to its differences. Right now I don't have much time and I'd like it to be cheaper too, but I think Wii could end up in my shopping list more likely than the others.

celine said: On the news sectio there is a description of Malstrom's 5 favourite games. I think it is funny try to guess what they are. 1) A 3DO game that is the ultimate progression of one of the first video games ever made, alone, made it worth plunking $699 for the system. 2) A PC game so epic, it was divided into two parts, and was the pinnacle of a series grander (and a hell more innovative) than Final Fantasy. The ultimate sand-box game. 3) An 8-bit game where you win by mind controlling your enemies and using their bodies to destroy other enemies. 4) A buggy strategy game, with tactics, that stretched in different worlds. 5) RTS where I literally, on the spot in battle, could program light planes to perform multiple hit-and-runs, on their own, while if they were hit once they would automatically return to base, repair themselves, and return to their harassment. Imagine the opponent suddenly getting 'attack warnings' from 24 spots on the map at once, and they keep changing. The psychological hell caused players to quit on the spot! -------------------------- 1) One of the only worthy games on 3DO was Star Control 2. It could be that one. 2) Easy. Ultima VII. 3) Paradroid. Easy to guess very orignal game. 4) I'm not strong on strategy games. Could be maybe Homeworld. 5) Uh read above. I have no idea. Someone else want to try ?

I'll give it a try too :)

1. Is Star Control 2 for sure, it's the ultimate progression of Asteroids. Also, seems like Maelstrom has a great taste in games ;)
2. I'll go by your word, as the last Ultima I played was VI.
3. Funny coincidence that Paradroid just got released for VC :)
4. I haven't been playing a lot of strategy games since Civ II / MOO, so I'll again go by your word and say Homeworld.
5. I think this could be Total Annihilation. Or Supreme Commander, but I believe Total Annihilation is the more likely option.

 Other than number 4, the hints aren't actually that hard. Funny how he seems to be mostly a PC player, btw :)

@Plaupius
From what game is your avatar ?

Short version - Study April NPD realize it's only going to get worse

Malstrom scares me sometimes. He scares me because whenever he touches on an area that I have personal knowledge of, he is so dead on it’s like he read my mind.

His description of the veteran gamer who was getting bored, who was finding the controller difficult and a pain in the ass and who would have left gaming except for the Wii is exactly how I would describe myself. I always thought that there were consoles and there was the PC and never wanted a console that thinks it’s a PC.

And something I’ve never admitted because of embarrasment but the main reason I quit online gaming (COD 1 & 2) was I got completely fed up by getting trash talk from a 15 year old because my reflex wasn’t up to his standards. And yet if I tried to contribute by taking a role that didn’t require the same quick draw ability like sniping, what happened? On most of the game sites if you stayed in one spot for a minute or so you got blasted for “camping” or labeled for a quick kill with something cute like farting noises. Never mind that snipers work by staying in one place until the line up a kill, they wanted to force me to play the game in the way that suited them. I got to where I would play spectator to try and ascertain the friendliness of the group but then I got cussed out for being a looky lou. I finally decided that if was like being trapped at a really bad all male high school party where way too much beer had been consumed. I didn’t need the aggravation so I quit.

That’s also why I participate in very few web site forums but fortunately, most of the time this one stay mostly civilized.

As far as Malstrom, you may not like what he’s saying but he hasn’t been wrong yet.

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For a business exercise, I gathered some friends and said, “Nintendo is disrupting. Let us brainstorm a way of how to disrupt the disruptor.”

Many ideas came, but what we agreed would be the way to disrupt the Wii would be to release a very simple console whose capabilities were not much better than the GBA. Such a console would be unique in that it would only use digital distribution; all the games would be as simple but as wild as the NES and Commodore 64 games. This console would be targeted at those who love 2d gaming but enjoy playing it on their television sets. Since online gaming came well after 2d gaming’s demise, online would give 2d gaming a new life. Our little console was a ‘crummy product for non-consumers’ and would attract former gamers. Following the disruption model, the console would experience growth on the population Nintendo was ignoring or didn’t seem desirable. As the little console grew in raking profits, we could make the console move upstream and slowly get more and more of the incumbent’s (Wii) market. We knew of how insanely popular flash games were on the PC market so a console version of them could really ride the wave!
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Me want